


we are too fragile just to guess

by LailaLiquorice



Series: loved so very deeply by a chosen few [5]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Protective Siblings, anne is the best big cousin, well not siblings but you know what I mean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 10:10:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20080447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LailaLiquorice/pseuds/LailaLiquorice
Summary: When Katherine Howard suffers a fall without her usual protector there to catch her.





	we are too fragile just to guess

It was a running joke among the queens that someone was going to fall over during the megasix one day. Between the heels they wore, the exhaustion of the final performance of a two day show on the last day of the week, and the confetti that littered the stage during the final number, they all joked about the inevitable fact that someone was going to fall over. A few of them had even placed silly wagers on who would be the first, with most betting that Anne would go down first or possibly Cathy if she’d forgotten to sleep the night before.

What no-one had predicted was for Kat to take a sudden fall about 10 seconds before the end of a show. And to make matters worse, of course it happened while Jane was away for a press trip.

She was barely down for a second before she was scrabbling back to her feet to stand in her final position, but her smile was frozen as she realised her ankle was ablaze with agony. She still danced around with the other queens after the megasix ended, grinning into the phone camera that Cathy shoved into her face and ignoring the concerned looks of the swing who’d been next to her when she fell. If she didn’t acknowledge how much she was hurting then she’d be able to make it to the end of the show without falling victim to her ankle again.

That was all she managed though, as she moment she was behind the curtain her leg gave way and she collapsed over sideways again. Her heart hammered in her chest as she pulled out her in-ears with one hand and clutched her foot with the other, eyes squeezed shut as she groaned aloud.

“Kat? Kat!” sounded several worried voices, and Kat flinched as there were suddenly hands laid on her shoulders and her knee and her foot. She knew the other queens were all trying to comfort her but it was a little too soon after her solo and the touch was only adding to her discomfort in that moment. Tears pricked in her eyes as she wished Jane was there.

“Oi you lot, give her some breathing room!”

Kat opened her eyes at Anne’s authoritative voice, watching her shoo the rest of the queens away a little as she crouched down beside her cousin. “Hey Kitkat,” she said, grinning brightly in the face of Kat’s unshed tears. “You ok to let someone carry you upstairs?”

After just blinking for a moment as Anne’s question registered in her mind, Kat nodded and let Anna pick her up bridal-style and carry her up the ‘stairs of death’. Once in her dressing room she motioned for Anna to put her down in her chair, squeezing Anna’s hand in thanks as she, Aragon, and the swing left to give them some space in the smaller room.

Anne held Kat’s hand as Cathy very carefully eased her boot off, and they all winced at the purple bruise already blooming beneath her fishnets. “Think you might need to get checked over babes,” Anne said quietly, meeting Cathy’s serious expression as she gently felt the swelling around Kat’s ankle.

“I don’t want to go to hospital,” Kat said quietly in a voice that was so audibly vulnerable she almost cringed at herself. It cracked embarrassingly when she added “Not without Jane here.”

As she ducked her head against the tears threatening to fall again she felt Anne’s hand hovering lightly over her shoulder. “Hey hey, I’m gonna come with you,” she said, fingers grazing Kat’s skin as she waited for permission before rubbing Kat’s arm comfortingly. “It’s just to make sure it isn’t broken and see how long you’ll need to rest it for. You’ll be back home ‘nd tucked up in bed in a few hours, alright?” The encouraging look on Anne’s face was hard to doubt, and Kat found herself nodding even while unconvinced.

“Do you want me to come too?” Cathy asked, glancing between them both though the question looked more directed at Anne.

Shaking her head, Anne replied “Nah it’s alright, I’ve got a day off tomorrow so I don’t need to go to bed early like the rest of you do. I’ll love you forever if you drive us there though?”

Kat giggled quietly at that request; Anne had recently failed her driving test for the fourth time, this one due to driving directly over a mini-roundabout less than five minutes after leaving the test centre. “Shut up Kitkat,” she teased lightly, flicking Kat’s ear when she continued to laugh.

Once Cathy and Anne had carefully helped Kat into her own clothes before changing out of their own costumes, the three of them were in the car heading over to the hospital. Kat was only glad that they’d chosen to drive to the theatre that day rather than taking public transport since she didn’t think she could make it down the stairs in the underground station on one leg only. After making them promise to keep her updated with any developments, Cathy left them by the door of the Accident & Emergency department to head home and let the other queens know why they’d been abandoned at the theatre.

“You good?” Anne said, bringing Kat round from where her mind had started to wander.

Kat hesitated before she nodded, letting Anne pull her arm over her shoulder so she could help her hobble into the waiting room. “Yeah,” she said in a hollow voice, smiling faintly at Anne as they started walking.

Checking in didn’t take very long since Anne did most of the talking to take the pressure off an increasingly anxious Kat, then they set up camp in the corner of the waiting room to wait for the assessment. Anne dragged another chair over for Kat to prop her leg up on, the two of them sitting mostly in silence until they were called into a consult room not long later. It was quickly decided that she’d need an x-ray to make sure there were no fractures in any of the bones of her ankle, and after being given some painkillers they were sent back out to wait for the x-ray.

The chairs they’d arranged were still where they left them, so Anne helped Kat to prop her leg back up before sitting down herself. “You gotta take these now,” Anne prompted, tapping Kat’s closed hand which held the tablets.

Kat hummed in acknowledgement, instinctively reaching over towards the water machine next to them for a paper cup. Her ankle twisted slightly as she moved and she had to grit her teeth to stop her from crying out in pain, stifling it to just a quiet noise as she winced heavily.

“Woah, be careful there. I’ve got it,” Anne said, waiting with arms outstretched as Kat moved her leg back into a more comfortable position before she hopped up to get her some water. 

“Thanks,” muttered Kat as she downed the tablets. She couldn’t look at Anne as she took the cup from her, couldn’t look at the caring sympathy on her face as she smiled encouragingly at her. Not when, despite how much she loved her cousin, it wasn’t the face she wanted to see.

Anne’s hand squeezing hers was a clear cue that she’d noticed Kat’s behaviour. “Hey, what’s up?” she asked, moving from her chair to kneel in front of Kat with her forearms resting on her lap.

Kat shook her head, embarrassed by the tears which fell down her cheeks. “Can’t tell you, you’ll be mad at me,” she whispered, still refusing to meet Anne’s gaze.

“Try me?”

She still didn’t want to say, but something about the lack of judgement in Anne’s words prompted her to gush out “I wish Jane was here.”

The put-out response she’d been expecting never came, instead Anne just gave an quiet sigh. “Course you do kiddo. She’s everyone’s mum, yours more than the rest of us. Y’don’t have to worry I’m gonna be angry at you for wanting her here.”

Kat smiled tearfully at Anne. “Thanks Annie,” she said, holding out her arms as Anne stood and pulled her into a hug.

They stayed like that with Kat leaning into Anne’s side until they were called into x-ray, with Anne taking as much of Kat’s weight as she could as they stumbled down the corridor. Anne was forced to wait outside while Kat’s ankle was x-rayed despite how much she protested, and Kat just about managed to keep herself from panicking as she sat alone beneath the scanner.

Once she was done she was given a wheelchair to get back into the waiting room; Kat should have known from the way Anne’s eyes lit up when she rolled out of the x-ray room that there would be chaos, and she was quickly proven right when Anne was charging down the corridor pushing a giggling Kat in front of her. A stern look from a nurse hardly dented Anne’s grin but somehow they managed to get back into the waiting room without having the chair confiscated or Anne evicted from the hospital.

A voice calling out “Miss Howard” interrupted their quiet giggling, and Anne managed to exhibit some restraint this time as she wheeled Kat into another consult room.

It was quickly confirmed that Kat’s ankle was only badly sprained rather than broken much to their relief, and after being given some stronger painkillers on prescription and physio exercises to do while she healed Kat was sent home on a pair of crutches. Anne managed to juggle all the tablet boxes and physio leaflets as Kat hopped out the door, somehow pulling her phone out of her pocket without dropping anything so they could order a lift home. They’d only been in the hospital for a couple of hours but it was still midnight and she didn’t want to drag one of the other queens out of bed when they had to do two shows the next day.

Anne’s offer to piggyback Kat up to her bedroom was quickly reconsidered when they both imagined the look on Jane’s face at the idea, so Kat opted to sit down and shuffle up the stairs backwards so she wouldn’t risk tripping on her crutches. They both got changed into their pyjamas before Anne went to fetch her laptop a bag of frozen peas to ice Kat’s ankle with, letting Kat get comfy while she found something silly to watch to take her mind off the pain.

“Thanks for coming with me Annie,” Kat murmured sleepily, her back propped up by several pillows and cushions while her head rested on Anne’s shoulder. The painkillers the hospital gave her had worked brilliantly on her ankle but had the side-effect of making her drowsy too, so it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep focus on what Anne’s laptop was playing.

Anne’s voice sounded tired as well as she replied “No worries Kitkat.” Ordinarily Kat would have felt bad that Anne was keeping herself awake to look after her, but in the moment she was too grateful for her cousin’s presence to comment on in.

It wasn’t long later before Kat was asleep, and Anne let out a quiet sigh of relief as she somehow manoeuvred her shoulder out from under Kat’s head without waking her up. Her phone lit up dimly with a text from Cathy in the next room asking if everything was ok, and Anne sent a quick text to her as well as Anna and Aragon for them to wake up to that Kat was fine and there was nothing to worry about. She shut her laptop down and went to leave for her own room, then glanced back at Kat sleeping soundly and decided she could stay there for tonight.

Kat’s bed wasn’t a full sized double so it was a bit of a squeeze but Anne managed to curl up close enough to her cousin that she didn’t think she was at risk of falling off the bed. “Night,” she whispered to the silent room, before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.

Morning came with a click of the front door as Jane let herself into the house, tired but happy to be home after being away for a long couple of days. Aragon filling her in on what had happened to Kat the night before caused a spike of worry in her chest, hardly lessened when she just told Jane to go upstairs and look in Kat’s room if she wanted to know who’d looked after her. Confused but accepting, Jane quietly opened Kat’s door and waited a moment for her eyes to adjust to the rosy-coloured gloom from the sun behind her curtains.

Kat was fast asleep with her foot on a stack of pillows, head tilted in a way that was sure to hurt when she woke up, but she wasn’t the only one there. Anne was crashed out and snoring lightly in a heap on the floor, which gave the impression she’d rolled out of bed during the night and somehow hadn’t woken up in the process.

Jane smiled fondly at the pair of them, moving forwards to scoop Anne up and place her back beside Kat on the bed. Then she kissed both of their foreheads and left them to get some well needed rest herself. If Kat woke and asked for her or if she heard the telltale thud of Anne falling out of bed again she’d be there, but she could rest easy knowing she’d left her darling Kat in very good hands.

**Author's Note:**

> And we end the week’s hiatus with bringing back this series which took the backburner for a little while. Thank you to the lovely anon who sent a prompt with ‘Anne looking after Kat while Jane is away’ which gave me the idea for how to jump back into this series. I love Anne being a big sister so much, she cares so much in her own chaotic way and she’ll defend Kat to the death. 
> 
> Just one of these left to go for Parr!
> 
> I'm lailaliquorice on tumblr :)


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